Chris Hardwick has delivered his response via PEOPLE Magazine to the allegations posted online by his ex-girlfriend, Chloe Dykstra, outlining a history of sexual assault and emotional abuse.
The allegations from Dykstra, outlined in her first-person essay, Rose-Colored Glasses: A Confession, broke down her allegedly abusive relationship at the hands of Hardwick. The essay outlined daily sexual and emotional abuse, control over her life, ultimately ending with her name getting blacklisted through Hardwick’s alleged pull within the media industry after she ended their relationship.
“I was expected to be ready for him when he came home from work,” she said. “Every night, I laid there for him, occasionally in tears. He called it ‘starfishing.’ He thought the whole idea was funny.” said Dykstra, in her letter.
Hours after the initial post, Hardwick made a statement regarding the matter to PEOPLE, which read,
“I was heartbroken to read Chloe’s post. Our three year relationship was not perfect — we were ultimately not a good match and argued — even shouted at each other — but I loved her and did my best to uplift and support her as a partner and companion in any way and at no time did I sexually assault her,” said Hardwick.
Hardwick, 46, went on to talk about their relationship, stating: “When we were living together, I found out that Chloe had cheated on me, and I ended the relationship,” Hardwick said. “For several weeks after we broke up, she asked to get back together with me and even told me she wanted to have kids with me, ‘build a life’ with me and told me that I was ‘the one,’ but I did not want to be with someone who was unfaithful.”
“I’m devastated to read that she is now accusing me of conduct that did not occur,” added Hardwick, now happily married to model Lydia Hearst, he continued, ” I was blindsided by her post and always wanted the best for her. As a husband, a son, and future father, I do not condone any kind of mistreatment of women.”
Dykstra, in her letter, went on to outline the various rules Hardwick had places upon her, ranging from not being able to drink, to not even be able to talk in public spaces such as elevators.
“I was not to speak in public places (elevators, cars with drivers, restaurants where tables were too close) as he believed that people recognized him and were listening to our conversations,” said Dykstra.
She went on to talk about her fear of angering Hardwick and ending their relationship, “To be fair, I did go along with it out of fear of losing him” said Dykstra before adding, “I’m still recovering from being sexually used (not in a super fun way) for three years.”
Dykstra also outlined in her medium post that she had thoughts of suicide, yet, she stated that she was able to “rebuild” despite the fact that Hardwick went out of his way to get her blacklisted after she had finally ended their relationship of three years.
She ended her letter by stating, “To the man who tried to ruin my future: A sincere and heartfelt apology could have made my last four years a hell of a lot easier.”
Since Dykstra’s confession, the digital entertainment company, the Nerdist has chosen to scrub any refrence to Hardwick from its website. Hardwick has not owned the Nerdist since it was sold to Legendary in 2012, and the Nerdist has not renewed Hardwick’s contract since it ended in 2017.
AMC in an update announced that they will be removing several shows associated with Chris Hardwick, including the second season debut of his talk show Talking with Chris Hardwick, which was originally set to air tomorrow night. AMC will also be pulling Hardwick from their San Diego Comic-Con panel, originally scheduled for next month. AMC states that Hardwick himself decided to not be a part of the moderating panels for both AMC and BBC America. It is unclear whether this decision was made on his own accord, or if pressure from the studio after the scandal with Dykstra contributed to the sudden departure.
In a statement, AMC brought up their long relationship with Hardwick, “We have had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years,”. AMC continued, by adding their reasoning behind his removal, “We take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously. While we assess the situation, Talking with Chris Hardwick will not air on AMC, and Chris has decided to step aside from moderating planned AMC and BBC America panels at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.”
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